No Wave is good wave

Obscure genres are the feeding trough of popular and blog culture these days, and No Wave is doubtless a point of reference for pop musicians like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and for more true-to-form emulators Talk Normal. But it also included art and gave the world some well-known names in independent cinema like Jim Jarmusch and Abel Ferrara.

HAU spends a weekend evaluating No Wave as the sixth installment of its Life is Live series with a peek at rarely seen film by pivotal (no-)figures John Lurie, Beth and Scott B, Vivienne Dick, and James Nares in the form of four 90-minute reels, discussion panels, lectures and a performance by James Chance himself.

No glimpse of the undisputed queen of No Wave, Lydia Lunch, but it’s hard to believe the weekend could go by without at least a mention of her.